


Winds of Time (The Bonfire Night remix)

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 06:23:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2571362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian is lost on an unknown planet. The Doctor, Barbara and Vicki go in search of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winds of Time (The Bonfire Night remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Winds of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1947483) by [paranoidangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoidangel/pseuds/paranoidangel). 



> In the original _Winds of Time_ , the narration follows Barbara as she rescues Ian. It left me wondering how the Doctor and Vicki fared in the course of their own search.

It had all happened so quickly. 

As Vicki had returned to the console room, her arms laden with coats, she had seen Ian standing in the barren landscape outside the TARDIS doors. Before she'd taken two steps forward, the doors had slammed shut of their own accord, and the TARDIS engines had roared into life. The Doctor had been hurrying round the console, pulling levers and adjusting dials, to the accompaniment of panicked exclamations from Vicki and Barbara. He'd muttered something about a possible solution, but Vicki knew only too well that his ability to control the TARDIS was erratic at the best of times. 

Nervously, she fidgeted as the Time Rotor slowed to a halt and the TARDIS doors swung open once more. Her heart leapt at the sight of the desolate landscape beyond them. A windswept steppe dotted with bare trees, it was hardly the most welcoming prospect, but it seemed as if the Doctor's plan had passed its first hurdle. There was one major difference, though: Ian was nowhere to be seen. 

Vicki closed her eyes, trying to remember where the planet's sun had been before. The light looked similar, she decided, so it was probably the same time of day, and the same sort of weather. But maybe this planet had a lot of similar days. It didn't mean this was the same day that they'd left Ian behind in — or the same year. 

"When are we?" Barbara asked anxiously, her thoughts obviously running on the same lines. 

The Doctor tapped at the TARDIS controls, and shook his head sadly. "I can't tell." 

_Without the same reading from before the TARDIS took off, I suppose he can't tell if we've moved in time,_ Vicki thought. But before she could broach the subject, Barbara had hurried out into the frozen landscape and disappeared from view. The Doctor and Vicki emerged, to find Barbara completing the circuit of the TARDIS. 

"I can't see him anywhere," she said. 

The Doctor took one of the coats Vicki was carrying and placed it over Barbara's shoulders. "Then we shall all have to look for him, won't we?" 

Barbara pulled the coat on. "We should split up," she said firmly. "He could have gone anywhere." 

The Doctor nodded. "I suggest we meet back here in... shall we say half an hour?" 

"Half an hour," Barbara agreed. 

"And you had better come with me," the Doctor said, turning to look at Vicki. Without waiting to see if she was following, he set off across the chilly steppe, his direction chosen seemingly at random. Vicki hurried after him. The turf underfoot — mostly brown or deep purple — took no footprints, and there were no landmarks of note to navigate by. 

"Doctor," she said. 

"Hmm? Yes, what is it, child?" 

"Supposing _we_ get lost out here, too?" 

The Doctor tutted. "That should not be a concern, if we take sufficient care." He tapped the trunk of a nearby tree. "Observe this." 

Vicki looked at the tree. "There are algae on that side... so that means North is that way. Or a direction we can call North, anyway?" 

"Yes, very good. Now keep your eyes open, and don't go mooning about, hmm?" 

"Of course." Vicki shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets and gave the chilly, changeless landscape another look. The sun was hidden by clouds, but its glow was close to the horizon, giving a weak, anaemic light and no heat. Over her shoulder, she could see the outline of the TARDIS, already rendered small by the distance they'd walked so far. A faint glow at the top must be the light shining through its windows. 

As she turned back, she saw another brief glimmer of light, off to her right. 

"Doctor!" she called. 

"Well?" The Doctor was some way ahead of her, but turned back at the urgency in her voice. "What is it now?" 

"Look — over there." She pointed. "I'm sure I saw a light." 

"What sort of a light?" 

"I don't know. It was just for a moment." 

The Doctor paused in thought. "You're sure of this?" 

"Positive." 

"Then I think we had better investigate it, don't you? Lead on, child." 

Trying to keep facing in the direction she'd seen the light, Vicki hurried forwards. The daylight was definitely getting dimmer, and the footing more uncertain; as she led the Doctor down a shallow slope, she caught her foot in a fallen branch and was sent sprawling. 

"Are you hurt, my dear?" the Doctor asked, helping her to her feet. 

"I banged my elbow," Vicki said. "That's— Look! There's that light again!" 

What she was indicating was the light she had seen — not a flash this time, but the flickering of a fire, waxing and waning not too far away. 

At the best pace they could manage, the two hurried towards the fire. Outpacing the Doctor, Vicki reached it first and realised how large it was; the flames rose higher than her head, and it covered an area of ground several metres in diameter. It reminded her of pictures she'd seen in old instruction tapes, of pre-spaceflight bonfire ceremonies, except there was no effigy of Guy Fawkes at the top. Finding the heat of the fire uncomfortable, she had to take a couple of paces back. 

"Well, child?" the Doctor asked, as he caught up with her. "What discoveries have you made, hmm?" 

"It can't have started by itself, can it?" Vicki said. "There hasn't been a thunderstorm or anything, so it can't be lightning. That means someone lit it. Doctor, do you think it could be Ian?" She made a hasty circuit of the fire. "But if it was him, wouldn't he be waiting here for us?" 

The Doctor shook his head. "That's not the question you should be asking, young lady." 

"All right, what have I missed?" Vicki gave the fire another look. "Is it an ambush? Someone's lit the fire to lead us into a trap?" 

"No, no, no." The Doctor took a pace forward, so he was silhouetted against the flames. "You'd say this fire was burning well, wouldn't you?" 

Vicki looked bewildered. "Of course I would." 

"But _what_ is it burning, hmm?" 

It took her a moment, but then Vicki realised what he meant. A bonfire like this should have had a stack of leaves and branches at its base. But here, the flames were dancing above nothing more than turf — turf that had been shrivelled by the heat, but still turf. 

She crouched down to take a closer look. It was almost as if the fire didn't quite meet the ground — there was a gap between them, a few centimetres high... 

"Doctor!" she shouted urgently. 

"What? What is it?" 

"I saw Ian!" She ran round to the other side of the fire, then back to where the Doctor was. "He was there!" 

The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders. "Now, my dear, there's no sense in panicking. Where did you think you saw Ian?" 

Vicki forced herself to take a deep breath. "I looked under the fire. You can see right under it. I saw Ian on the other side. He looked like he was asleep." 

"And when you went to the other side of the fire, he wasn't there?" 

"That's right." Once more, Vicki walked around the fire. "About here." 

"Dear me." The Doctor made his own circuit of the bonfire, peering into its flickering depths. "Something that you can walk all round, but if you look _through_ it, you can see somebody who isn't on the other side. Now, what does that remind you of, hmm?" 

Vicki shook her head in bafflement. 

"What about the TARDIS?" the Doctor suggested. 

"But this isn't the TARDIS!" Vicki protested. "It's not a machine or anything like that. It's just a fire." 

"Possibly." The Doctor carefully knelt down. "Possibly it is something more. I think an experiment is in order." He turned to face her. "Do you think you can find your way back to the Ship on your own?" 

"Yes," Vicki said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. 

"And you remember there is a firehose hanging on the wall outside Barbara's bedroom?" 

Vicki was on safer ground there. "Yes." 

"Then go to the TARDIS and come back here with that hose. And be quick about it, child!" 

With a hasty nod, Vicki turned in what she guessed to be the approximate direction of the TARDIS, and hurried away. Now that the fire was behind her, she realised for the first time how dark the sky had become; the pale, watery sun was nowhere to be seen, so presumably it had set. As she passed the leafless, withered trees, Vicki found herself touching their trunks, checking whether 'North' still lay behind her. Uncomfortable thoughts of what nocturnal creatures might live out here wouldn't leave her mind; maybe, if she turned her head, she would see the eyes of a pack of wolves, or a hunting bear, or some creature less familiar but no less deadly... 

As she crested the next gentle ridge in the ground, she caught a glimpse of light ahead: the steady, yellow-white glow of the TARDIS. With a new spring in her step, she raced down the next slope, jumped over a small stream at the bottom, and let out an involuntary gasp as icy water splashed over her feet. She looked down, puzzled. She'd definitely landed on dry ground, but her shoes and socks were as wet as if she'd landed in the middle of the water. Still, there was no time to waste. She hurried up the opposite slope, and within a few minutes later, was at the doors of the TARDIS itself. As she stepped into the warmth and light of the console room, she realised she was leaving a trail of wet footprints, but there was nothing she could do about that. 

The fire hose was exactly where the Doctor had said. It was wound around a red-painted reel attached to the wall; Vicki took hold of the free end and began to retrace her footsteps, through the corridors, then the console room, and out into what was now very definitely night. She wondered how long the hose was; hanging on the reel, it had appeared to be a few coils at most, but as she walked there was no sign of it running out. 

She descended into the first declivity, keeping a careful eye on the stream she'd jumped over before. Rather than risk jumping this time, and with her feet already wet, she decided to wade it. It was exactly like wading any other stream; she felt the water when she was standing in it, and at no other time. As she topped the gentle slope on the other side, the distant flicker of the fire came into view. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of another fire, further off to her right. She looked over to it, then to her left. There was a third fire there, too — no more than a point of light, but all three fires brightened and dimmed in perfect unison. 

_It's some sort of mirage,_ she decided. Dragging the hose with her at the best speed she could manage, she hurried towards the nearest of the fires. 

When she reached it, she was relieved to see that the Doctor was there. He was crouching in front of the fire where she'd left him, and didn't look up until Vicki, red-faced and gasping for breath, was within a few paces of him. 

"Ah," he said. "That was very quick of you, my dear. You must have run all the way there and back." 

Vicki shook her head. "I couldn't have done that." 

"Look." The Doctor held out his watch. "You've been gone for less than five minutes." 

"I can't have done!" Vicki protested. She pointed at her own watch. "That's an easy ten minutes. You must be running slow." 

The Doctor chuckled. "Oh, must I?" 

"Anyway," Vicki went on. "I've brought the hose, now what do we do?" 

"I suggest that we see exactly how real this fire is." 

"You mean we're going to put it out? Can I go first?" Vicki gave him her most heart-melting expression. "Please?" 

"Very well, my child. Point the nozzle at the fire, and squeeze that valve." 

Vicki followed the Doctor's instructions. As soon as her hand closed around the valve, water gushed forth onto the fire. Steam and smoke enveloped her, but she concentrated on aiming the jet at where the flames were thickest. Soon she was finding it difficult to spot flames at all, and before long the sizzling had died away. 

"I think I've done it," she called cheerfully, shutting off the flow of the water. 

As the smoke began to disperse, the Doctor, who had stepped back to avoid the worst of it, came forward once again and stood beside her. Before them, all that could be seen was a darker circle on the dark ground. There was no sign of Ian. 

Cautiously, the Doctor stepped into the circle. Vicki followed and put one hand on the ground. It was warm, and when she lifted her hand again it was black with soot, but that was the only indication that the fire had ever been there. 

"Whatever this was," the Doctor said, "it was no simple brushwood fire." He pulled out a match, struck it, and held it close to the ground. "Nor was it an escape of flammable gas." 

"Was it some sort of mirage?" Vicki asked. 

"A mirage?" the Doctor repeated. "Why do you say that?" 

"Well, when I was coming here, I saw a couple of other fires," Vicki said. "Except they were the same one as this one — they all got brighter and darker together." 

"A remarkable phenomenon," the Doctor said. "Perhaps 'mirage' wouldn't be a bad word for it, at that. An image projected by atmospheric distortion — and, of course, if light can be projected, so can heat." He climbed slowly to his feet. "Dear me, it must be getting late. Barbara will be wondering where we've got to." 

"But if the fire was an illusion, why did the water put it out?" Vicki asked. 

The Doctor tutted. "It wasn't a simple illusion. It could affect us, so we could affect it." He took the end of the hosepipe from Vicki, and began to walk back along its length. "Now, come along. It's all perfectly straightforward." 

"Does that mean when I saw Ian, he was by one of the other fires?" Vicki asked. 

"It's possible." The Doctor seemed to be talking to himself more than Vicki. "But if that fire was a projection, it was fully three-dimensional. Or perhaps more than three." 

"Four dimensions?" Vicki asked. "Do you mean it could be projected through time as well?" 

"Quite so, child, quite so." The Doctor walked on in silence for some minutes. "And if the boundaries of time on this world are so fragile that even a fire can push them open..." 

"Is that why we couldn't see Ian? Has he gone into the past? Or the future?" A new notion struck Vicki. "Or have we?" 

"One of us has, certainly. Remember that when you went to the Ship, your timestream diverged from mine by five minutes or more. Running slow, indeed!" 

"Watch out for the stream," Vicki said, as they neared the TARDIS. "The first time I came here I trod in it when it wasn't... oh! It's gone!" 

"That would follow," the Doctor replied, nimbly stepping over the trickle of water that currently occupied the streambed. 

"What do you mean?" 

"You have all the data, child. I shall be interested to hear your conclusions in due course." 

Vicki pushed a stray lock of hair back, and realised to her annoyance that she'd left a sooty mark on her forehead. "Why can't you just tell me?" 

"Then however would you learn to reason for yourself?" the Doctor riposted triumphantly. 

Before Vicki could come up with a convincing answer to that, they were back at the TARDIS. She followed the Doctor in, to see that Barbara was back — and she'd obviously found Ian. Both of them were wrapped in blankets, looking cold and tired. 

"What happened?" Barbara asked. 

"We put out a fire," Vicki said. "But the Doctor said it wasn't a proper fire, it was a mirage or something. I thought I saw you through the fire, Ian, but when we put it out you weren't there." 

"So it _was_ you," Ian said. "There I was, minding my own business, when some young hooligan tipped a load of water over me. And I thought I heard your voice." 

"That's not how you told me it happened," Barbara said. "He's teasing you, Vicki. If you hadn't put out the fire, Ian would have been trapped." 

Vicki shook her head. "But that still doesn't make any sense. If I could see the fire, why didn't I see you when we put it out?" 

"There's something wrong with the way time works here," Barbara said. 

The Doctor gave her an approving look. "You noticed that?" 

"It was pretty hard to miss. I saw Ian's initials on the trees before I found him. But on the way back they weren't there, so we carved them." 

"Is that like what happened with the stream?" Vicki asked. "I jumped over it, but I still got wet from when I walked through it the other way? And then when it wasn't there at all, we'd moved into a different season when it had dried up?" 

"Now, that's something of a simplification, but—" The Doctor broke off, seemingly noticing for the first time that he still had one end of the fire hose in his hand. "Take this, my dear, and wind it back up." 

Vicki took the hose and walked back with it to the reel. How half a mile or more of hose could fit onto such a small spool, she had no idea, but perhaps it ran on the same sort of science that made the inside of the TARDIS fit into the outside. 

She returned to the console room. Once again, as she emerged from the corridor, the outer doors closed, and the TARDIS engines began to wheeze and groan. She glanced across at Ian and Barbara, to reassure herself that this time, the Ship was taking off with all its passengers on board. 

"So these 'localised temporal vortices' were similar to what we experienced in the Space Museum?" Ian was saying. 

The Doctor shook his head. "No, nothing like that." 

"Or was it like putting a jigsaw together?" Barbara suggested. "Where all the things we did were different pieces, but they fitted together in the end?" 

"A jigsaw, indeed! I can see I'm wasting my time trying to explain something perfectly simple. Dear me, the company I'm forced to keep..." 

Barbara and Ian exchanged glances, their expressions eloquent enough that Vicki couldn't help giggling. 

"And as for you, young man," the Doctor went on, "I hope you've learned your lesson not to go wandering off." 

"Certainly not, Doctor," Ian replied. "From now on I'll take as much care not to do that as you do yourself." 

Having no immediate answer to that, the Doctor merely replied "Hmph," and busied himself at the TARDIS console. 

"I'll go and hang the coats up," Vicki said, gathering up various discarded garments. Privately, she mused that for supposedly-responsible adults, all her fellow travellers seemed far too prone to wandering off and getting into trouble. 

It was, she decided, definitely a good thing that she was there to keep an eye out for them all.


End file.
